Saturday, October 31, 2009

New Year

Tomorrow is the first day of school, and I am not afraid. Tonight I’ll sleep through the night. I have no packets made, no lesson plans printed. For all of the time that I put into planning last year, before school even started, I have learned that you have to know your students before you can plan for them. I have the same kids as last year, and yet need to get to know them all over again.

This year I will be teaching a CTT class (half special ed, half general ed) all subjects. I will keep them in one room all day with myself and another teacher who is certified to teach special education. I am going from 180 students whose names I didn’t know to 30 students whose special talents I can list in my sleep.

It will be a new challenge – but I don’t feel afraid – if I survived last year, I can do anything. Summer really does have a anesthetic effect. I remember the end of last year, the feeling of drowning and suffocating when I was asked to stay for even a minute longer than I had to. I can’t even begin to make myself feel that way when I think of school now. Now I think of the craziest moments of last year and I laugh. They are ridiculous and unbelievable, but it’s a relief to laugh about these things and to realize that we are all still standing.

No comments:

Post a Comment